Ragged Memory
by AriXAmi
Summary: Ziva has become the target of ever greedy man, woman, child, and organization on earth. It turns out, her father left more behind for her than just his position. It also turns out that her family is not at all what she thought it was. How is she supposed to do her job with cross hairs trained on her from all over the world? And who is that vaguely familiar girl following her?
1. Prologue

"_Call your old friends at the secret service. I will tell them all they need to know." He produced a cell phone and held it out to me. "Take it." He held it further out, I made no move to take it. "My Hamas are well trained. They will kill or capture your president and mine."_

_Confusion lit up my face. "Your president?" I was 99% sure that Palestine did not have a president._

"_I am Israeli." He clarified. "Mossad."_

That wasn't all that happened. It was just all that my team knew. No, a lot happened after I called the secret service and before I called Gibbs to come get me. Probably the most important thing to happen was that I learned his name; Ari Haswari.

This next bit, you're not going to believe. First, Ari wasn't that bad of a guy. And second, he was on our side from the start. I don't know what you already know from Gibbs so I'm just going to tell you the whole story. Stop me if you know something already so I can skip over it.

Ari's father is the director of Mossad. They're like the Israeli CIA. He was trained to be a mole in Hamas for Mossad. And the FBI were using him to take out Hamas terrorists in the United States. All the conflict Ari caused was to get in close with Hamas to be able to take them down from the inside.

Now here's where we get to the really crazy part. Just…just bear with me a little. Mossad had reason to believe there was something valuable somewhere in the US. They even had some weird old prophesy about it. The FBI got in on the hype and contracted Ari to decode the prophesy.

What he found out was beyond wild. I won't spoil it for you. Just know that they needed my help. And that I faked my death. And had to change my name. You might have known me as Special Agent Caitlin Todd. Well, not anymore.

* * *

**AN: This is a retcon of the chapters Online and Fork in the Road from 100 Little Looks. First, that fic is on official hiatus. I don't have the motivation to work on it so I'll get back to it later. This is a separate fic that will be multichaptered. I had this idea and it at first seemed kind of lame but now that it means I can work with Kate being alive and Ziva being on the team I'm super digging it. Yes I did some extra research so I could escape finger pointing at glaring inaccuracies. Also, no I did not retcon Ari's death. Okay, you'll have to wait til chapter 1 for more details. Until then, enjoy.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary: A young girl is found dead on a navy base. Meanwhile, secrets are apparently being kept between Gibbs and Fornell. **

* * *

"Come on, Rainy. The rest of us made it." A young boy, maybe 16 years of age, waved from the distant bank. The water in the river was low, leaving the banks to overhang the rocky current like cliffs. Behind the boy was another of approximately the same age and a girl maybe a year or so younger.

Rainy looked around, casting her glance over her shoulder like someone might be watching her. She was wringing her hands in a nervous fashion. "I don't think we should be here. My dad always told me to stay away from the banks." She took a half-step back. "Guys, we should go."

The boy who had spoken before stepped back and took a run at the back, leaping and landing right in front of Rainy. "See, totally safe. I wouldn't let Cara do it if it weren't. What kind of brother you take me for?"

Rainy gave a soft smile. "Right, what was I thinking?" She placed her hands on his shoulders and guided him out of her way. Taking three steps back, she ran at the cliff and jumped.

Her foot slid sideways on the grass and three sets of eyes watched as her body fell, lifelessly, into the water. "Hey! Rainy, you okay?"

A few moments of silence passed before an annoyed voice carried through the dark of swiftly approaching nightfall. "You gonna stand up there gawking or is someone gonna help me? I think I cut myself."

Several minutes later, the two boys were helping Rainy through her bedroom window. "You sure you're gonna be okay?" The boy who had remained silent asked.

"Its fine, Jim. I'll just tell my mom that I slipped and hit it on the dresser or something." She pat Jim's arm. "You guys should get out of here, if she finds you we're all dead."

Jim and the other boy climbed out the window. "Take care, Rainy." Cara said sweetly as she jumped down into her brother's arms.

Rainy slowly walked over and closed the window, waving to her friends. "You too, Cara."

#%$^&*

Tony entered the squad room in a relatively good mood. It would have been a definite good mood if he had not had to listen to McGee the whole elevator ride up. Admittedly he had not actually listened, but just the buzz of the Probie's voice had put a damper on what _was_ a good day.

"You didn't hear a single word I just said, did you?" McGee asked when they both reached their desks. Ziva was already at hers and the topic of their conversation had peaked her interest.

"Trust me, McTalker, I heard you." Tony pulled open his desk drawer and pulled out a pair of headphones. "Now, if you'll all excuse me."

"Nope." Gibbs voice bellowed down from the third floor. He careened down the stairs to stand in the bull pen. "We've got a body on a navy base. Grab your gear."

"There should not be any sailors on base." Ziva said, grabbing a note pad and tossing her bag over her shoulder. "Sec Nav is supposed to be giving a speech at…" She flipped through the notepad to find the location.

Gibbs shook his head, placing his hand over the paper. "I never said it was a sailor." His voice was soft and directed straight to her. "No." He raised the volume to include the rest of the team. "Little girl was found dead in her bedroom this morning with a gash in her head."

%$^(&*&^%

"This it?" Gibbs asked. McGee was in the passenger seat, playing around with the GPS. After a nod, Gibbs got out of the car. "DiNozzo, McGee you check around, see if anyone saw anything. Ziver, you're with me."

Ziva and Gibbs walked up to the door in time for it to open and FBI Agent Fornell to exit onto the porch with a distraught woman. "Here he is now." Fornell said softly, beckoning Gibbs over. "Mrs. Cooper, this is Special Agents Gibbs and David from NCIS."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Ziva asked as gently as she could.

Mrs. Cooper wiped a hand over her face and took a deep breath. "I went to wake her up and…and it's strange, you know. Rainy is always up with the sun. It's not like her to sleep late so I thought maybe she was sick. I was going to bring her breakfast in bed." She covered her face with her hands, taking a few more deep breaths before letting them fall again. "There was blood from the windowsill to her bed. Her pillow is soaked." Tears rolled down her face. "Who would want to hurt her?"

"Your daughter's name is Rainy?" Ziva asked, her gentleness was gone.

Mrs. Cooper gave a smile through her tears. "Her name is Delaney. But her friends gave her the nickname Rainy when they were little. I never understood why? Something about her just made them think of rain." She seemed a bit exasperated, like talking about her daughter was helping and hurting at the same time.

"Perhaps you might tell me more." Ducky moved into the little huddle and offered a reassuring smile to Mrs. Cooper. "I'm a medical examiner but I have some experience in psychology. If you'd like, I might be able to get to the bottom of this association."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow, taking a moment to get the hint. "Mrs. Cooper, this is Doctor Donald Mallard. He'll take care of Rainy for you."

"Call me Ducky. And if it's alright with you, Mrs. Cooper, Mr. Palmer will make sure your daughter gets to NCIS safely while I make sure you get to lunch safely." Ducky offered his arm as Jimmy darted passed to go deal with the body.

"Thank you, Ducky." Mrs. Cooper sounded out of breath. "But, please, call me Nora."

"Boss!" Tony's voice called from the back of the house. "Found more blood!"

Gibbs jogged over to the back gate. "Ziva, get all the info Fornell has. See if we can't send something ahead for Abby to get started on."

"You're looking a little run down. Don't think Gibbs can manage without you?" Fornell teased lightheartedly as he tore some pages from his notepad.

Ziva shook her head, looking off where Gibbs had disappeared. "I will be fit as a fraggle in time. Things have been difficult."

Fornell nodded. "Fiddle. You'll be fit as a fiddle."

Behind the house, Gibbs followed the trail of DiNozzo sized footprints in the sandy soil until he met both his agents behind the bush line perimeter of the yard. "Trail starts here." Tony pointed out, the first few blood drops deeper in colour than the ones leading up. "Could be possible the little girl was out here when her attacker got her. Or the guy was bleeding and some of the blood in her room is his."

"You find out." Gibbs nodded, he didn't seem as angry as he usually was when someone made an assumption. "Send as many samples off to Abby as you can." Gibbs started walking further into the bushes.

"B-boss, where are you going?" McGee asked, pausing from taking pictures.

Gibbs looked back, he appeared to be in some sort of daze. He shook his head clear, heading in the other direction to go back to Ziva. "Get that stuff back to Abby, Ziva and I will ask around."

McGee and Tony exchanged a look. "Did you see that?" Tony whispered, afraid the boss had sonar hearing.

"I've never seen him do that before." McGee admitted. He took picture of the direction Gibbs had tried to head in. "You think something might be wrong?"

Tony shook his head, take the few steps that Gibbs had further from the house. "I've seen him do that, actually. Long time ago."

A look of realization dawned on McGee. "You don't mean…?" He trailed off, afraid to voice it.

Tony nodded, walking back and clamping his hand on McGee's shoulder. "Indeed, McOblivious. Indeed I do."

When Gibbs got back to where he had left his female agent and FBI counterpart he found them both gone. A scan of the area led him to find Ziva sitting in the car, waiting patiently. He knocked twice on the window, making her jump slightly before she rolled down the window. "Anything?" He asked.

Ziva looked around, as if expecting someone to jump out at her. "Fornell was acting skippy after you left. Other than that, a dead end. Sorry, Gibbs."

Gibbs walked around to the driver's side and got in. "Don't worry about it. And I think you mean jumpy." Ziva gave an appreciative smile at the correction. "He didn't give you anything? No notes? Clues? Leads? Anything?"

Ziva pulled out the pages Tobias had ripped from his notepad. "This is all information we could have gotten from our database. Palmer just left with the body. We will know more after autopsy."

(*&^%$*&

"Don't you worry, Doctor Mallard is going to take good care of your mom." Jimmy was leaned in closed to the dead girl's head which was laid, like the rest of her body, on the autopsy table. He walked around the table and re-prepped his tools. "You are a really pretty girl. Well, you were. You _are_ dead now. No offence, of course. Dead-dead people can be pretty."

"Palmer."

He jumped at his name, turning to look at the man entering autopsy. "I-I'm sorry, Gibbs." He laughed nervously. "I was-I was just about to start the autopsy." He held up a chart, indicating the things already found on the body. "I sent up whatever I could find under her fingernails and in the head wound. I just, gosh, I just can't get over how young she is." He screwed up his face and shook his head. "Who would do something like this to a little girl?"

"That's what we're trying to find out." Gibbs sounded gentle. "The younger they are; the harder it is to see any conceivable reason for their deaths." He clasp his hand on Palmer's shoulder. "Take your time, Jimmy. Start the autopsy when you're ready. And if you need anything." He walked over to the doors, calling out over his shoulder, "call Abby for help!"

(*&^%$^&

"What have we got?" Gibbs re-entered the bullpen to find his agents all huddled around the plasma. They scattered slightly when the boss spoke, regrouping with notepads and the clicker for the screen.

"Delaney Cooper. Daughter of Nora and Ralph Cooper. Was born 16 years and 4 months ago in Canada. Her parents were vacationing, she wasn't expected for another 2 weeks." Tony flipped through some ID and family photos before passing the clicker to McGee.

McGee nodded as he took the clicker. "Ralph Cooper enlisted the same year Delaney was born and the family moved on base almost immediately. Since then he has been on 3 tours and is currently deployed on a 4th." McGee handed the clicker to Ziva.

"Mrs. Cooper is an unemployed Navy wife and Delaney attended the nearest school, which is the same as all other children her age on base." Ziva shifted around, clicking the clicker over the slides a second time. "This is all the same information Fornell gave me. We have yet to find anything more."

Gibbs nodded, seemingly distracted. "Good. We'll know more after autopsy."

"How is Mr. Palmer doing down there?" Ducky joined them from the elevator, three teenagers following at length. "I will be on my way down to join him. I thought, though, that I might bring in some of our victim's friends." Ducky gave a knowing smile before toddling off to autopsy.

"You are?" Gibbs asked, towering over the 'leader' of the group.

The young man squared his shoulders and looked right up at Gibbs. "M-my name's John. I'm, ah, I was a friend of Rainy's."

(*^%$^&*(%

The teenagers all sat around the conference room table. The leader, John, was wringing the seams of his baseball cap. He was the tallest of them, lean build with dark hair. He looked average, and had a face you could forget easily. To his right was his little sister. She was small, but build a bit bigger than the average girl. Her hair was a rusty copper colour and was tied up in two low braids. And finally to John's left was another boy, thinner than John and shorter than the girl. He was blond.

Gibbs and Ziva sat across the table. Ziva flipped through her notepad, checking over the information they had been given. "You're gonna find who killed Rainy, right?" The girl asked.

Ziva looked up and gave a soft smile. "That is our intentions, yes." Before she could say more, John cut her off.

"Course they're gonna find 'em, Cara. That's what they do." John put his hand on Cara's shoulder.

Ziva scrunched up her face as she scrutinized her notes. "Your name is Melissa, right?" She waited for the girl to nod. "Why does your brother call you Cara?"

The smaller boy piped up. "Their Ma called her Mel til she was four. When I met them; I started calling her Caramel, like the candy. Over time it got shortened to Cara." He shrugged. "They call me Jim even though my name is Josh." Gibbs and Ziva exchanged a look.

(*&$#%^&%$

Abby moved around her lab, music as loud as ever, waiting for Gibbs to show up. "What've you got Abbs?" McGee entered with is best Gibbs impression, eliciting a smile from the perky goth.

She moved over to her displays and clicked a picture to enlarge it. "Well, McGibbs." She laughed at her own mocking tone. "Apart from all the dirt and blood I got from the head wound, I was able to find minute traces of a metal alloy." She clicked over to another picture. "This particular alloy is used to coat hunting knives. It looks like our navy kid was murdered."

McGee walked over and clicked the first image again. "It doesn't make any sense, though. A knife couldn't make that kind of indent into the skull. I'm gonna grab Tony and head back to the crime scene, see if we can't find a better solution." He leaned in and kissed Abby on the cheek. "Thanks, Abbs."

*(&^%$&*(

Tony and McGee pushed low-hanging tree branches aside as they wandered into the forest behind the Cooper house. "So what are we looking for again, McTracker?"

McGee disregarded the jibe. "A hunting knife. Abby thinks that's what killed Delaney Cooper. But the indent is too deep. I wanted to take a look around and see if we maybe had got something wrong."

Tony nodded, knowing full well that McGee couldn't see it. "And why, exactly, are we the ones out here doing the foot work? Shouldn't the FBI be doing the manual labor? It was a civilian death, after all."

McGee shook his head. "No, Gibbs think's Fornell is up to something. He wants NCIS doing all the work and only tell the FBI what's need to know." They were now along the river, the water having diminished even more since the previous evening.

Tony, by chance, glanced over the edge of the bank and into what was left of the rocky tide. "Uh, McGee. I think this might be need to know."

&^$^&%*^%^

Fornell and Gibbs followed Ducky down the bank to the body that Tony had discovered. McGee had the portable AFIS out, a grim expression on his face. "This is Ralph Cooper, Boss, Delaney's dad. Looks like he never made it to that last tour."

Gibbs shook his head. "You find out what he was doing here." The boom in his voice sent McGee packing as he rallied Tony to head back up the banks with him. "Time of death, Duck?"

Ducky had the liver prob in hand and was glaring at it as if it had just said some rather foul words. "Well, according to the prob, Jethro, this man has been dead for weeks. But that can't be possible. He should have departed for his tour. Unless something prevented him from deploying?"

"We'll find out." Gibbs said cryptically just as Fornell's phone went off. "You gonna get that, Tobias?"

Fornell jumped slightly, barely, before nodding and taking out his phone. "Yeah, Fornell." He waited silently while someone on the other end spoke. "Got it." A moment more. "No, they won't be a problem." Another, followed by a furrow of his brow. "Just keep me informed." He hung up.

"Who was that?" Gibbs asked. The two men rarely kept things from each other, even business. Hell, they even shared an ex-wife. Gibbs found it a little irksome that he had to ask.

"Just the head of a project I'm over seeing. Trust me, Jethro, you do not want to get involved with this one." He shook it off a little too quickly as they walked back to their cars.

Gibbs gave a crooked smile. "Fine, fine. What's it called, at least? So I know what to stay away from."

Fornell gave Gibbs a measured look. "Kill Armor Terrorism Empire." He hopped into his car before Gibbs could respond, leaving the NCIS agent with a confused look on his face.

*(&^^&()&*

When all agents had returned to headquarters, Ziva was waiting with information she had pulled on Mr. Cooper. "According to his CO, Mr. Cooper never joined his troop. He was reported missing but the report was never sent back to base. When he failed to report for duty the first day he was written off as an RTB and forgotten about."

Gibbs walked right passed as Ziva spoke. "Check with Abby. I've got autopsy."

*&^%$^

"He was definitely beaten, Jethro. Unfortunately, the body is too old for there to be any indication of cause of death. Even if we could find a killer we wouldn't know what to charge him with." Ducky walked around the autopsy table to make a note on his chart.

"There's got to be something, Duck." Gibbs countered.

"_Maybe I have something._" Abby's distorted voice came from the screen that linked the lab and autopsy via video conference. "_The knife found next to Ralph Cooper in the river was the same one that cut Delaney. All the prints on it belong to Ralph. With this information I can recreate what probably happened to Delaney._"

"That's good work, Abbs." Gibbs yelled at the screen. "Anything for Mr. Cooper?"

"_Not yet. His uniform suggests that he probably had intended to join his troop. Something stopped him._" She came up close to the camera. "_Hey, shouldn't Fornell be here? The death of a civilian falls under FBI jurisdiction._"

* * *

**AN: I decided to leave it as a bit of a cliff hanger. Each chapter is supposed to be like an episode (apart from the prologue and epilogue). I probably should have put this in the author's note in the prologue but this is set after Shiva but before Damned If You Do. Autopsy is hard to write. Or rather, it is hard to write for Palmer doing an autopsy because he's so awkward. I can't ramble when I need to. To find out what happened to Mr. Cooper you'll have to wait until next time. Until then, enjoy.**


End file.
